The Washington Nationals confused some people at the trade deadline with a roller-coaster 48 hour period.
From looking like buyers, then floating Bryce Harper on the open market, then ultimately doing nothing but trading reliever Brandon Kintzler to the Chicago Cubs, some struggled to make sense of Washington’s actions.
On Wednesday, Mark D. Lerner, son of principal owner Ted Lerner, explained that the Nationals simply could not justify giving up on the season when they had so much talent on the roster.
“In spite of a player payroll that exceeds $200 million — the 2nd highest in baseball — and exceeding the luxury tax threshold, so far this season has not lived up to everyone’s expectations,” Lerner wrote on the team’s official MLBlog. “The trade deadline forced us to take a hard look at the roster and contemplate whether to keep the team we have for the remainder of the season or make significant changes.
“At the end of the day, my family and Mike Rizzo decided that we just couldn’t give up on this team. We couldn’t look ourselves in the mirror knowing that we had simply thrown in the towel on a team full of talent and heart.”
We know now that, reportedly, the Nationals were engaged in some in-depth conversations regarding Harper before Rizzo pulled him off the market. One has to wonder if ownership talked things over with Rizzo and decided to intervene before things got too far down the line. They certainly don’t sound eager to throw in the towel despite the Nationals sitting at a modest 54-53 and 4.5 games out of the nearest playoff spot.
